Reflective Commentary:

NOTE: I compose this commentary in response to the guiding questions provided

on the Methods Syllabus:

Reflective Commentary on the Process

* How did you develop ideas?
* How did you make decisions as you planned?
* How did you address questions including lingering
questions?
* How do you think this unit plan will play out in the
classroom?
* Anything else you want to share?

My Unit Plan was a modification of my original intention in the YLP; I removed many of
the mentor texts so that I could present a more traditional approach to planning a lesson.
One thing I have noticed is that I am perfectly comfortable with lectures day in and day
out. Ive also learned too much lecture in a public school setting can disengage students
with the content of the course. I modified my unit plan so that so that it wasnt simply an
amalgam of excerpts from canonical authors. I wish I had some more time to expand on
the supplementary Handouts I mention in my Daily Unit Plan. The Daily Unit Plan is a
more streamlined version of my SUGGESTED PEDAGOGY GUIDE (Scope and
Sequence, Coke E-322 Fall 2014). Charts like these are likely to give the reader (and
author a headache) but for some one that is flippant with plans, this tool become
indispensable when navigating from day to day. My research on the Multigenre Research
Project (i.e. Romano) was the influence of my Multigenre Research Project (Dr. Louann
Reid E-402 Fall 2014). Dr. Reid offered a strong model for instructing the project, and I

only imagined illustrating the texts for the course, but would take a lot of pleasure in
doing such a project, and hammering out the repetend, because as of now I feel the
repetend I model in the Multigenre Text Examples for the Genre Generation Workshops.
The idea of doing so much in class reading is that I will be supplementing this with the
audiobook version. I comment on this in the course overview, there are a few places in
the novel where it is intentional why the reader cannot pin down the speaker (minor
characters i.e. the mob) besides these passages there are instances where it becomes very
difficult to recognize the speaker, yet crucial information for the plot or characterization.
The audiobook solves this latter obstacle to understanding, because Golding has
distinctive voices for the major characters.

This might surprise you, but my planning was very rushed. By the last four weeks of
class I have been working from project to project. I have learned that I need to make
time to get into that concept of flow (ODonnell-Allen & Garcia 2013). That said, there
is a method to my madness. I realized that I should approach this unit with a singular
mentor text. So I began annotating Lord of the Flies. By that I mean, I filled out note
cards for each chapter with challenging words and page numbers, and complex
discussion questions mainly focused at violence and social agency, there is some
resistance content in there, and some focus on the language use in the novel (this was
how I realized I could incorporate the Grammar Mini Lesson). From there I took a
regular sheet of paper and started doing some math. I listed all the time lengths for the
chapters, I found out how many minutes I would have total and each week. I realized
that reading the whole audiobook in class would take over a third of the units class time,
so I tried to shave in class reading time to less than a third of all time. I realized such a
daunting open ended text would need a lot of scaffolding/modeling. I got the idea for a
lot of the Lord of the Flies Multigenre Text Examples from suggestion I heard from
Todd Mitchell (E-405 Fall 2014). With those time restraints in mind I sketched up a
tentative plan for how the weeks would unfold. After that I went about writing the major
assignment (quizzes, Vocab chart/pool, Repetend Proposal, Research Logs, Multigenre
Research Project) descriptions and assignment sheets. From there I created the Daily
Unit Plan, I can see how I could apply UdD Lesson Plans to the weeks of each unit; that
is to say, that the UbD seems like a way to look at the larger picture, and that is why

many of the weeks in my unit end with the Genre Text Generation time. I choose to do
the Daily Lesson Plans last, because they are essentially a detailed transcription of what I
have written Daily Unit Plan. I realize that the main purpose of this assignment is to plan
out pedagogy on a daily approach, but thats not my style. I have constructed my own
tools (and stolen a few) for student learning. If I were to remove that extemporaneous
thrill of being in front of the class I might get lazy.

I think my vaguest question that I have to deal with on a personal, case-by-case basis is
the idea of PLCs. I think there is potentially effective literature on the topic, but I havent
found any literature on PLCs with which I have felt connected. That said, I see the
practices in my academic life, and I am going to make a professional recognition of my
colleague, Melinda Smith. I have had three concurrent CSU courses with this reliable
and resourceful instructor. She has been my lifeline in this phase of the STEPP program.
I would have used her organization and networking attributes regardless of the PLC
coursework I did, but the sense of community that was modeled in Pam Cokes Method
Course likely elicited the professional relationship that she and I developed. Without
Melinda I would have bombed a project or two this semester (EDUC-486 Fall 2014).
That is one question, but I think my most pertinent lingering question is how do I design
backwards, while still constructing a student-centered curriculum. That is to say, can
UbD predict the end goals while still accounting for the unknown obstacles that change
with each class or students. I think one thing that is conducive with my personality is to
go with the flow. It is crucial to set out the end goals, but to get committed to
scaffolding, with a prescribed, preset list of skills and content, will likely disengage
students that are struggling with the progress of the class. What Ive learned from my
Practicum experiences, and the AVID tutoring I participated in this semester, is to be
adaptive. Education is messy, and it takes constant evaluation of the situation to do
effectively (EDUC 350 Spring 2014, EDUC 450 Fall 2014, AVID Instructor Fall 2014).

I would be very excited to teach this unit, the original Unit 3 that I envisioned for the
YLP was a radical idea that I would like to do some day many years from now. The unit
I have described above is something I could see going off very well with proper
scaffolding and modeling. I would like to do more research on Multigenre Research
Project, likely from other authors than Tom Romano. I think Lord of the Flies lends itself

to a unit culminating in a multigenre project, because the ntoovel blends symbolism with
setting, character, and plot so seamlessly. This semester was the first time I ever read the
novel, and I originally listened to the audiobook, and fell in love with the recording. I
didnt suspect there to be such a different effect when reading the text to integrating the
audiobook into instruction allows to illuminate the idea that the same content can be
presented in different genres for different effects. I think I could do a better job of
integrating the film clips, but would love the chance to do it.

I think my final comment will be on the nuances and juxtaposition of the YLP and the
Unit Plan. I think the scopes of these assignments dictates the level of engagement into
the content. In the YLP, I threw a bunch of content into each unit plan, because I had
ambitious ideas and you can never have too much for your YLP. That is to say, that
when it comes fine to focus the lens on the daily lesson, unit goals, and culminating texts
it will be about organizing the criteria for learning as to elicit the greatest student
response. I feel like I have provided the framework for creating daily lesson plans, and
could finish it if the task became potential reality. One last professional recognition, Dr.
Coke is a methodical, mad scientist of pedagogy, and anyone would be grateful to learn
from her. It is only fitting that Dr. Cokes students praise her as much as she does them.